Spike in Air Traffic as Millions of Indonesians Go on Mudik Trips

TheIndonesia.id - A surge in air traffic has been reported at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport since last week as millions of Indonesians go on homecoming trips, or mudik, to spend Idul Fitri holiday in their hometown.

Airport operator PT Angkasa Pura (AP) II revealed that passenger movement started increasing on Friday, April 22, ahead of big day Lebaran.

“We can inform that, as predicted, on April 22, surge of passenger movement started,” AP II president director Muhammad Awaluddin said on Sunday, April 24, as reported by Antara.

According to him, about 160,000 passenger movements across terminals at the airport were recorded last Friday. Meanwhile, takeoff and landing also increased to around 900 from 600 on the previous days.

Awaluddin said in facing the significant movement spike at the airport, the state-owned company are strictly implementing the applicable regulations to make all activities run smoothly.

“First, we’ve been preparing SOP implementation, both on the operational at the airport and related to takeoff traffic – as well as the preparedness of health protocols as mandated by the government,” he explained.

AP II has also opened a number of terminals that were closed as result of COVID-19 outbreak, and 5,700 personnel from various stakeholders are deployed to support mudik trip this year.

Lastly, the airport operator predicted that the peak of mudik will happen on April 30 with 180,000 passenger movements – and 120,000 passenger movements are predicted to take place at Soekarno-Hatta airport.

“For mudik reverse flow, we predict at least 200,000 movements will happen, and the peak will be on May 28,” Awaluddin concluded.